Tag Archives: President Bush

Movie – War Machine – a misplaced parable

Netflix has just released War Machine onto the streaming media waters. This movie fits into the long tradition of American media mostly puffing up our military exploits or turning them into light tragi-comedy.  Brad Pitt, applying the acting style of a trimmed down George Clooney, portrays the fictional General Glen McMahon. Broadly and obviously based on the story of the real General Stanley McChrystal who took over the War in Afghanistan in June 2009 only to be ousted in June 2010 after a profile appeared in Rolling Stone Magazine revealed much foolishness and derogatory comments about President Obama and VP Biden. The movie has its comedic moments and the very broadly played General MaMahon is bound to either really annoy those enamored of the US military or fulfill the image of buffoonish generals that others may prefer. Continue reading →

11/9/2004 – Coincidence or Harbinger?

What do the following states have in common besides all having voted for Bush last week?

Texas, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Kentucky, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Florida, Alabama, West Virginia, Georgia, Arkansas, South Carolina,Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana.

These are the bottom fifteen states in health care system performance among the 50 states for 2004. Can you guess the order of the list? Which state is 35th and which is 50th?

For the source of this data and the rest of the report click over to the United Health Foundation.

 

10/5/2004 – The Emperor has no clothing

Rummy and Company say, “The Emperor has no clothing”.

 

Just in case you missed these helpful comments by authoritative sources within the Bush world:

It was widely reported today that Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and former occupation chief Paul Bremer made strong comments undermining the Bush camp’s Iraq war justification and execution.

The actual words Mr Rumsfeld used in his comments on Monday to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York in reference to al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein were: “To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two.”

Bremer said, before an insurance industry group yesterday, “We never had enough troops on the ground,” Bremer said, while insisting that he was “more convinced than ever that regime change was the right thing to do.”

(quotes from BBC and NyTimes websites)

10/1/2004 – Bush and the Saudis

Friday

Bush and the Saudis

 

I saw this picture several months ago in the newspaper and was very struck by what it says about the relationship between Bush and Bandar, the ambassador from a foreign country. Today it popped up again in the current issue of the New York Review of Books. With only a few moments search I found the original color photo.

 
The caption in the New York Review of Books: “George W. Bush and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi Ambassador to the US, at Bush’s ranch in Crawford, TX, August 27, 2002.”

The body language and social conventions displayed here tell me the following:

This is a very comfortable social setting for the two of them, intimate even.

Bush is entirely at ease and not feeling the need to hold any poses with regard to Bandar or the presence of the photographer in the room. Bush is at a lower level looking up to Bandar.

Bandar for his part seems almost unimaginably familiar and casual with Bush. Put yourself in the living room of someone you know quite well. Would you sit on the arm of an upholstered chair to chat? Would you do this with the President of the US (or any other country for that matter)? Only if you had been in the house frequently and you were on very good relations.

Is there any further need top wonder that Bush arranged to have all of the important Saudi’s flown out of the US immediately after 9/11 while even hid mother and father could get a flight anywhere.

BTW – the credit for the photo: Eric Draper/White House website

Getting Started – a progressive call to action

Thursday, September 23, 2004

Getting Started – a progressive call to action

The politics and cultural life of the US has increasingly been dominated by “the vast right-wing conspiracy” – the Bush Presidency is the culmination of formal processes underway for several decades and historical phenomena rooted in the earliest moments of the country.

These are difficult times for those of us who believe:

  • the separation of church and state (one of America’s great gifts to humanity) is fundamental to the health of our society and religious groups within it
  • our economy should produce jobs that pay a living family wage for everyone
  • health care and housing are rights for everyone
  • providing for the health and education of all children is an important duty of society as a whole and an investment in the future
  • the total costs of private enterprise activities must be kept private (for example, pollution, waste management, workforce health and injuries, etc.)
  • costs of public life should be shouldered fairly by all parties (including the rich and corporations)
  • the role of the US on the world stage is best served by a clearer focus on multilateralism, disconnecting from the neo-imperialist policies currently guided by the needs of corporate interests

We need a long-term program and platform to reenergize the progressive elements of our society. The present Democratic Party is not structured to capture the interests of the large majority of Americans who could support, out of their own self-interest, a more progressive vision.

Just as the right-wing elements have coalesced around the Republican Party and made it their vehicle over the last two-to-three decades, we need a long-term program and a platform to change the terms of the debate and move public processes in our direction to achieve our objectives.

This raise all sorts of questions. In the next few entries here I will tackle some of them.